Iowa voters say it’s too early to write off DeSantis despite headlines about resets and dwindling cash: Only a third say his campaign is going poorly in a new poll, giving Florida governor a chance to fight back
Last week brought another campaign reset for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as a DailyMail.com poll showed his support in the crucial early state of Iowa had fallen by nine percent.
But stop asking the actual men and women who will compete in the first contest to elect next year’s Republican nominee and they’ll tell you to ignore the headlines and that there’s a long, long way to go.
“I think Trump is in charge now, but Trump is going to say something stupid and make a mistake, and people will turn to Ron,” said 38-year-old John, a Des Moines pastor who attended the Iowa State Fair on the weekend.
Thousands of people took advantage of the fair to cast their eyes on the 2024 candidates at the fair.
And the DailyMail.com poll shows that Republicans in the state are open to whether DeSantis’ presidential run is a success or a failure, even after another week of negative headlines.
JL Partners surveyed 600 likely Republican caucus attendees in Iowa from Aug. 1 to Aug. 7. The results have a margin of error of +/- four percent
Ron DeSantis spent three days in Iowa criss-crossing the state on a bus tour before appearing at the state fair on Saturday after yet another campaign reset
While only 18 percent said they thought his campaign was going “fairly well” or “very well,” and 34 percent thought it was going poorly, some 38 percent said it was going “neither well nor badly.”
Of those who say they support Florida for the nomination, about 41 percent say his campaign is going well, while nine percent think it’s going badly.
It suggests that, despite endless negative headlines, DeSantis still has a path to the nomination among the people who will actually make the decision, said JL Partners co-founder James Johnson.
“They may not be saying things are going well, but they’re not overwhelmingly saying things are going badly either. Rather, they say neither or don’t know,” he said.
So there’s an open mind that persists among the Republican electorate around DeSantis.
“They are waiting for the debate. If he performs very poorly, voters may turn away from him.
“But if he does well, or he does, okay, they’re still willing to give him a chance.”
Campaign manager Generra Peck (left) was replaced last week in the latest sign of unrest, and Florida’s first lady Casey DeSantis regularly took center stage whenever coverage of her husband turned hostile.
DeSantis has seen his numbers drop in Iowa, and protesters disrupted several of his performances, but most voters in the state say they are open to his campaign.
The scholarship is a chance for 2024 hopefuls to flip chops, eat bad food and meet the voters who will decide who to be nominated on January 15 next year
Former President Donald Trump appeared on Saturday and drew a huge crowd. He remains the easy front runner among likely Iowa caucus attendees
In recent days, attention has been focused on Iowa. The state fair is a great opportunity to shake hands with voters and deliver on their policy promises.
Iowa will hold its Republican caucus on January 15, making it the first state to elect a candidate.
It could be a defining moment for a candidate like DeSantis, who shook up his leadership team again last week.
Out went campaign manager Generra Peck, who masterminded his reelection as Florida governor last year. James Uthmeier, his chief of staff from his state office, entered.
It followed a round of staff cuts as the campaign ran into financial difficulties.
DeSantis now also leans more heavily on an outside group. He overtook David Polyansky in the campaign of the super PAC Never Back Down.
And on Thursday and Friday, he toured Iowa on a Never Back Down Bus in an attempt to visit all counties in the state. The group is well-funded and can count on the expertise of Jeff Roe, the campaign guru who reportedly helped Glenn Youngkin win a surprise victory in the 2021 Virginia governor’s election.
JL Partners surveyed 600 likely Republican caucus attendees in Iowa from Aug. 1 to Aug. 7. The results have a margin of error of +/- four percent. It shows that Trump remains a favourite
Former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen flipped pork burgers at the fair
DeSantis donor Dan Eberhart, who has not shied away from criticism of the campaign, said voters don’t care about the minutiae of employee stories, especially in Iowa, where they took their prime responsibility seriously.
“They want to meet the other candidates, they want to think about it,” he said.
“They are really more persuasive than the average national voter.
“My second point is, you know, the media and the ring road and people on the inside care about all these things, but I don’t know if the voters care if Ron DeSantis’s campaign is big or small, who’s fired, who’s in charge.’
Trump arrived at the state fair on Saturday, flying into Iowa on his 757. Thousands cheered and craned their necks as it circled the fairgrounds.
Not for the first time, the former president managed to steal his rivals with a grand gesture even before he set foot at the fair.
But grand gestures don’t always convince voters in Iowa.
“He just draws the attention that should be on the other people running,” said Luanne Brendlinger, 70, of Altoona, talking about his divisive politics and headlines.
She said she loved Trump while he was in office but planned to rally for DeSantis because she had been living in an RV in Florida during the pandemic and the campgrounds remained open. (Despite the fact that she sports
And she added that he seemed to understand the way to win over Iowa voters
“I think what he’s doing by visiting all the provinces — I think if he continues, I think it’s going to work.”
Despite headlines about resets and missteps, Iowa voters are split on whether or not the DeSantis campaign fails: Only a third say it’s going bad in a new poll, giving Florida’s governor a chance to backtrack. to fight